16 months

Neil turned 16 months on May 29th.

Well, Neil got his first black eye. He got it running into the corner of the piano bench, and the corner hit his eye. Surprisingly after an intial huge scream he didn't really react a whole lot although we gave him Tylenol at bedtime. He scratched both of his upper and lower eyelids, and had a nice black and blue spot on his cheekbone. Pictures don't really do it justice.

This picture was taken the day he got the black eye (coincidentally it was mother's day)
and it looked worse the next day.

Since then, it seems like he always has some kind of injury/bruise/cut. It seems like this is just going to be normal for awhile. 

Neil seems to like to climb a lot and is getting even more active. I don't know if I would say he actually runs but he can move pretty quickly at times. He's getting pretty steady on his feet and can walk up and down our hilly driveway and yard fairly well at this point.

We went on our first bike ride, on Mother's Day. Dave put the infant bike seat on the bike, and we have an infant/toddler sized bike helmet. In order to get him to wear it, I put mine on as well and we were walking around our yard with bike helmets on. I'm sure our neighbors were probably wondering what in the world we were doing. Neil liked the bike ride at first but I think I took it too fast down some of our hills. This also made me realize just how steep and hilly our neighborhood is. It's actually harder to bike up them than it is to run them. Anyway, when we got back he had tears streaming across his face from his eyes watering, and when I took him out of the bike seat he clutched onto me and wouldn't let go for a little bit. 

Memorial Day weekend I took Neil for another bike ride on a flat path along the river and we ended up next to Heinz Field in downtown Pittsburgh. He seemed to really love it and was pointing at this as well as babbling/talking behind me. I'm really looking forward to more bike rides together.

Last month I said I thought Neil was getting his 3rd and 4th teeth- actually it was 3-6 teeth! He now has 6 teeth, well kind of. When he got his 4th, I thought it was the upper middle but it was off to the side, which worried me. But then I looked and realized it was actually the tooth to the side of his upper middle and that both side teeth were coming in. The 2nd upper middle was actually his 6th tooth to come in, and that happened mid-month. He did get pretty clingy and made motions at his mouth which we figure were saying his mouth hurt. Two of the teeth are barely in but they're there!

I don't really have an update on the eating front because he's been eating pretty much everything we give him. He had his first hot dog, at a Pirates' game. He ate the hot dog but wouldn't eat the fries. It's really hard to get anything healthy at a sports stadium.

I'm still nursing morning and night and per doctor's orders we stopped the bottle. We were only feeding him from a bottle in the morning with what I pump before work and it was more because I pump into bottles. Now I put everything in a sippie cup for him. When we did that he got upset and started taking that sippie cup to daycare and drinking it along with eating yogurt. The first 2 days he threw a little temper tantrum for Dave because he associated the sippie cup with cow's milk and wanted my milk, not cow's milk.

As far as temper tantrums, we're getting to the point/stage that I'm not sure we can take Neil out to eat. If he doesn't want what we give him he starts throwing fits. I'm also disappointed that he's kind of turning bratty (I hate even saying that). At daycare one day, when Dave dropped Neil off, someone else was in "his" high chair. Now this was also the first day we took away the bottle so maybe he just didn't want changes. But the girl in his chair, it was her 1st birthday, so the chair was decorated and everything. Neil threw a fit because he wanted to sit in his chair, to the point that they took the birthday girl out of the chair (this is where I'm pretty dismayed about his behavior). Then he threw a fit and didn't want to get in the chair. I'm hoping this is just a normal phase. He still has a good disposition if he's getting what he wants but we're working to try to teach him that you don't always get what you want. I'm wondering if he's old enough to get it yet.

I hope we're doing things right though. One day he threw a temper tantrum for no apparent reason. I was cutting up apples for him for daycare, and Dave was the one dealing with it. Dave left him in the living room and joined me in the kitchen. I finished what I was doing, with Neil screaming the entire time. Then I went into the living room and I sat down a few feet away from him. I didn't say anything or do anything, just sat down. I did look at him but didn't stare or anything. He fairly quickly stopped crying and came over and sat in my lap. I wanted to show him that if he was willing to calm down we could deal with things and show him I wasn't going to swoop him up and "fix" things and that he would have to take action. So those are the kind of things I'm trying to do, without being mean about it. And when he came over to me, more calm, I gave him a hug and told him I love him.

Neil has been saying phrases as well as words. He says "I don't know" now and has said "Star Wars" a few times, to Dave's great delight. He also says banana instead of just "b" and sometimes adds an extra "na" on the end but I'm surprised he's talking in multiple syllables - potato is another multi-syllable word he has added. 

It can still be hard to differentiate some words if they start with the same consonant but sometimes we can figure it out based on context. I'm really proud of him. The doctor said at his 15 month appointment that this might be partly because of us reading him books and partly an indication that he's smart. (Also, my time to brag- at the doctor appointment he said we were answering "yes" to a lot of the 18 month questions even though he was only 15 months.)

This month Neil had his first donut (at Oakmont Bakery) and saw his first parade on Memorial Day. He loved the fire trucks and motorcycles and they gave him a little flag to hold as well as a lollipop.

Neil also copies things that we do. Dave was putting air in our neighbor's bicycle tires and Neil was trying to help with the pump. When Dave was done, Neil tried using the pump himself. He actually put the right part on the pump up to to the stem pipe (or whatever it's called) on the bike.

Neil trying to put air in my bike tire a few days after Dave put air in our neighbor's bike

Just some random things- Neil will say tick tock when he sees a picture of clock and move his head back and forth. He also figured out that he can push the home button on our phones to see the screen. So I had to password protect my phone. I never thought I'd have to do that for a toddler. Neil has some "my first word" type books and he is pointing at most words and saying them "hat", "airplane" with two syllables, "duck", etc. He also says the names of some animals and then the noise they make. For example, he points at the baby chick, says "chick" and then "bok bok". I think this is pretty advanced for his age based on what I've been reading and seeing. 

Deja vu from last month, right? - but every time we go to church and Dave plays, Neil wants to play too.

Stats:

Diapers – size 3
Clothing - Same as last month. We tend to put him in 18 month tops/onesies/pajamas but he still needs 12 month size in pants, and even some 12 month pants are falling down on him. I'm realizing that even the 18 month tops are a bit big on him. Oops, bought a bunch of 18 month summer clothes figuring 12 month would be too small... Hopefully they'll fit better at the end of summer?

Weight - Neil actually stood on our bathroom scale by himself and it said 23 pounds. It only goes to the half pound.

Height - I didn't try to measure his height myself.

Yes, he is responsible for this mess.